The Space Colony That Should Have Been

As we close the book on the final U.S. space shuttle mission ever, it’s heartbreaking to watch NASA videos from the groovy 1970s, a time of incredible optimism regarding the final frontier in the aftermath of humankind’s first walk on the moon. Preliminary plans and concepts were being outlined for self-sustaining space colonies where people could live and work. A space station called Taurus would be home to 10,000 people, with dairy farms, manufacturing, vegetation, solar power stations… and then somewhere along the way we became sidetracked.

if one thing disappoints me the most about mankind, it is the lack of interest in getting off this rock

Anonymous

if one thing disappoints me the most about mankind, it is the lack of interest in getting off this rock

MoralDrift

if one thing disappoints me the most about mankind, it is the lack of interest in getting off this rock

DeepCough

Humans were not built for space, humans are forever tied to the Earth. I see no point in, say, colonizing Mars, or Jupiter’s moon Titan, if all we humans are gonna do is “terraform” it, which is just supplanting the old environment you left onto a new one.

MoralDrift

There is no point to colonizing the earth either, yet we continually expand our footprint here on our home planet. If you want to stay here that’s fine, but I hope that in the future humanity can spread its seeds far across the galaxies…..

DeepCough

Y’know, in a lot of science-fiction stories where humans take to fleeing into space (hell, even in the Starcraft PC games), it’s because humans fucked up Earth so bad that they decide to commandeer another planet and waste time terraforming that, rather than fix the problems extant on Earth.

Bigdickmegaherz

We need to incorporate the Space program into national defense so it gets funded. Its not hard to rationalize that this is the ultimate air superiority mission.

Bigdickmegaherz

We need to incorporate the Space program into national defense so it gets funded. Its not hard to rationalize that this is the ultimate air superiority mission.

MoralDrift

it was already that way and that is the opposite direction we should be taking. Although, space combat is inevitable

Anarchy Wolf

Space colonization is fucking dumb and economically unfeasible. Instead of learning the lesson that mindless growth is bad and killing the planet, idiots dream of escaping from the mess they made here.

You made your bed, now fucking lay in it.

Anarchy Pony

Space colonization is fucking dumb and economically unfeasible. Instead of learning the lesson that mindless growth is bad and killing the planet, idiots dream of escaping from the mess they made here.

You made your bed, now fucking lay in it.

MoralDrift

why is it dumb and why wouldn’t we want to escape this overcrowded planet? There is an infinite universe how can you be so content to stay here? By your logic, Humans should have stayed in Africa for eternity as it just idiotic to want to proliferate and expand…or maybe just the Eurasian-African landmass forget Oceania and the America’s there is just no point why would you want to go there blah blah blah.

Feel free to stay but the future of humanity is in the stars

93_Qing

Sorry, but when I think of space exploration I do not think of
economics. That may be your horizon, but I doubt most humans think of
profit motives when it comes to travelling towards the stars.

Before the British invaded Tibet in 1904, most Westerners in Tibet were explorers, not tradesmen.

DeepCough

Humans were not built for space, humans are forever tied to the Earth. I see no point in, say, colonizing Mars, or Jupiter’s moon Titan, if all we humans are gonna do is “terraform” it, which is just supplanting the old environment you left onto a new one.

Anonymous

There is no point to colonizing the earth either, yet we continually expand our footprint here on our home planet. If you want to stay here that’s fine, but I hope that in the future humanity can spread its seeds far across the galaxies…..

Anonymous

There is no point to colonizing the earth either, yet we continually expand our footprint here on our home planet. If you want to stay here that’s fine, but I hope that in the future humanity can spread its seeds far across the galaxies…..

Anonymous

why is it dumb and why wouldn’t we want to escape this overcrowded planet? There is an infinite universe how can you be so content to stay here? By your logic, Humans should have stayed in Africa for eternity as it just idiotic to want to proliferate and expand…or maybe just the Eurasian-African landmass forget Oceania and the America’s there is just no point why would you want to go there blah blah blah.

Feel free to stay but the future of humanity is in the stars

Anonymous

it was already that way and that is the opposite direction we should be taking. Although, space combat is inevitable

DeepCough

Y’know, in a lot of science-fiction stories where humans take to fleeing into space (hell, even in the Starcraft PC games), it’s because humans fucked up Earth so bad that they decide to commandeer another planet and waste time terraforming that, rather than fix the problems extant on Earth.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=561270894 David Crowe

Looks kind of tiny… 😀

David Crowe

Looks kind of tiny… 😀

93_Qing

Sorry, but when I think of space exploration I do not think of
economics. That may be your horizon, but I doubt most humans think of
profit motives when it comes to travelling towards the stars.

Before the British invaded Tibet in 1904, most Westerners in Tibet were explorers, not tradesmen.

Ken Scott

We need to withdraw from the Outer Space Treaty and start up nuclear propulsion tests.

Ken Scott

We need to withdraw from the Outer Space Treaty and start up nuclear propulsion tests.